DA: Officers took down $2M-a-week operation

New York  Some of the New York metropolitan area's biggest sports gamblers weren't able to place their wagers Monday because officers arrested 18 operators and bookies and dismantled a $2 million-a-week Internet betting ring.

The bets - on professional and college sports, with limits as high as $100,000 - had been funneled by computer to a "wire room" in Costa Rica, said Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore.

"You name it, they were betting on it," said Steven Vandervelden, head of DiFiore's criminal enterprise division. There was some online casino betting as well as the sports wagers, he said.

The district attorney put on a news conference behind a display of guns, steroid-filled syringes, marijuana, computers, printers and nearly $1 million in cash, all confiscated from the suspects during the weekend arrests, which were enabled by 44 search warrants at 30 locations.